This information was included in a lawsuit brought by
shareholders in Boston. They say this manipulation of price cost
them billions in the sale of around two dozen companies including
Neiman Marcus, Toys R' Us and Lowes and AMC movie chains and more from 2003 to 2007.
Note that these deals came out after Romney left the, but in the
world of politics, the ongoing drip of negative news about Bain
doesn't help.

The case centers on the “club deals” that became popular during
the leveraged buyout boom of 2003 to 2007, a period that the
complaint calls the “Conspiratorial Era.” It claims there was a
complex web of collusive arrangements involving 11 of the world’s
largest buyout firms on 19 deals.

In the buyout of HCA, for instance, Bain, K.K.R. and Merrill Lynch bought the company in 2006 for
$32.1 billion, then a record. Documents produced by the
defendants and filed this week showed e-mails and meetings
indicating that other equity firms had agreed to “stand down” and
avoid bidding with the understanding that they would be brought
into future deals.

E-mails cited in the lawsuit indicate that another private equity
firm, TPG, said it had discussed the HCA acquisition with
executives for Bain and K.K.R. and had decided not to bid on the
company because “our relationship with them, K.K.R. and Bain, was
more important.”

Lawyers for Bain say that this is just an attempt to hurt Mitt
Romney's campaign. Romney's campaign says all of this happened
long after he left Bain anyway.

Either way,
according to the NYT, prosecutors say that there are more
embarrassing e-mails to come. That should be interesting.